London Detectives 1897

[Paddy]

Hi Found a picture book at boot sale today called "A Cockney Camera" There was this picture of London Detectives at Westminster Abbey in 1897. No Idea who they are though....

Pat..........

[Bridewell]

That's a nice find. Is the Abbey in the City area or the Met?

[Sam Flynn]

That's a nice find. Is the Abbey in the City area or the Met?

I'd have thought that Westminster Abbey would be in Met territory.

[Monty]

Westminster Abbey came under the Mets A Division jurisdiction.

The article alludes to a special division created purely for the Jubilee, however I think that there is confusion with O Division, which only came into existence during coronations.

Monty

[Simon Wood]

'A' Division, 22 King Street, March 1889.



Simon

[Monty]

Not the station dog in the window.

Monty

[Simon Wood]

I think you're right, Monty.



And here's the officers.



Simon

[Paddy]

I thought that might have been my Henry Cox third from left but maybe not....
Pat....

[Paddy]

I hope its ok to paste some pictures from casebook? I have compared the picture I found with some detectives.
I wondered what you think?
Pat...

[Paddy]

Policeman Cartes de Visit on Ebay

There is a victorian policeman's picture on ebay cartes de visite at the moment and his number is 256H

CDV Victorian Policeman Carte de Visite by Port of Stonehouse Devon

Pat....

There are actually a few more, one being Hackney photograph..... all in uniforms.

[The Station Cat]

There is a victorian policeman's picture on ebay cartes de visite at the moment and his number is 256H

CDV Victorian Policeman Carte de Visite by Port of Stonehouse Devon

Pat....

There are actually a few more, one being Hackney photograph..... all in uniforms.

Very interesting!!! I'm by no means an expert, so forgive me if I'm talking through my hat. But I don't believe this chap is from "our" H Division. My reasoning for this is the "stripes" on his leave, I've never seen a Met bobby wearing such things. There also appears to be some sort of symbol or the like before his collar numbers, which I am unable to account for. The collar numbers also appear to be smaller that the divisional letter, or is that just my eyes? Also given were the picture was taken I would suggest perhaps this chap is in fact from Devonshire Constabulary, perhaps they had a H Division as well???

[The Station Cat]

Very interesting!!! I'm by no means an expert, so forgive me if I'm talking through my hat. But I don't believe this chap is from "our" H Division. My reasoning for this is the "stripes" on his leave, I've never seen a Met bobby wearing such things. There also appears to be some sort of symbol or the like before his collar numbers, which I am unable to account for. The collar numbers also appear to be smaller that the divisional letter, or is that just my eyes? Also given were the picture was taken I would suggest perhaps this chap is in fact from Devonshire Constabulary, perhaps they had a H Division as well???

There is another picture, also appearing to be H Division. But again I don't believe this is Whitechapel H Division either. We've got those stripes again on the sleeve and a top hat instead of a custodian helmet.

[harry]

The stripes on the sleeve could be service stripes,such as was used in the British army,showing years of service.

[The Station Cat]

The stripes on the sleeve could be service stripes,such as was used in the British army,showing years of service.

Yes Harry without a doubt. But I don't believe these were used by the Metropolitan Police, I strongly suspect that these Bobbies are from Devonshire Constabulary or whatever it was called back in the day.

[Robert]

Well I'm no expert either, but if it helps here are a couple of links showing that there was an H division in Devon and showing constables with stripes below the elbow.

http://british-police-history.uk/show_nav.cgi?force=devon&tab=0&nav=alpha

https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/your-right-to-information/our-people/our-history/force-areas/devon/devon-constabulary-1856-1966/